Fizyka podróży międzygwiezdnych. Wędrówka po świecie Star Trek

The Physics of Star Trek and Beyond #1

by Lawrence M. Krauss, Ewa L. Łokas (Translator), Bogumił Bieniok (Translator)

Okazuje się, ze współczesna fizyka potrafi już powiedzieć bardzo wiele o statkach kosmicznych przyszłości (napęd na antymetrię, prędkości ponadświetlne, tunele czasoprzestrzenne), o możliwości teleportacji astronautów z pokładu rakiety na planetę, o broni kosmicznej i innych pomysłach, które do niedawna kojarzyły się wyłącznie z literatura fantastyczno-naukowa. O wszystkim tym pisze znany amerykański fizyk teoretyk, czerpiąc przykłady ze słynnego serialu "Star Trek". Książkę opatrzył przedmowa sam Stephen Hawking!

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Star Trek, Physics, Popular Science, Space, Reference

183 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Lawrence Maxwell Krauss is a Canadian-American theoretical physicist and cosmologist who taught at Arizona State University (ASU), Yale University, and Case Western Reserve University. He founded ASU's Origins Project in 2008 to investigate fundamental questions about the universe and served as the project's director.
Krauss is an advocate for public understanding of science, public policy based on sound empirical data, scientific skepticism, and science education. An anti-theist, Krauss seeks to reduce the influence of what he regards as superstition and religious dogma in popular culture. Krauss is the author of several bestselling books, including The Physics of Star Trek (1995) and A Universe from Nothing (2012), and chaired the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Board of Sponsors.
Upon investigating allegations about sexual misconduct by Krauss, ASU determined that Krauss had violated university policy, and did not renew his Origins Project directorship for a third term in July 2018. Krauss retired as a professor at ASU in May 2019, at the end of the following academic year. He currently serves as president of The Origins Project Foundation. Krauss hosts The Origins Podcast with Lawrence Krauss and publishes a blog titled Critical Mass.

Reviews

[Alejandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smart reading!


STAR TREK TECHNOBABBLE

You have to give attention to a book when Stephen Hawking does the foreword!

In this reference book, Lawrence M. Krauss, the author, engages into the area of topics that Star Trek always has been a pioneer in the media field...

...the presentation of science-fiction in way that you may very well think that eventually it will be possible...

...even more in account when you think that some of the "futuristic" technololgy presented, not only in the Original Series, but also in the spin-offs, it was already made possible thanks to the inspiration of using in the TV shows, such like automatic doors, touch screens, cell phones, tablets, hyposprays, portable computers, etc...

...so it's quite advisable to take a moment to study about the more ambitious technologies that they are still to be possible, but with time, resources and intelligence, I am sure that they will be possible too eventually.

Therefore, here you can read about the plausibility of advances such like warp engines, transporters, phasers, holodecks, along with the study of space phenomenons that still are in the theorical level, like wormholes, subspace, time travel, etc...

Star Trek isn't only a franchise to be beyond its time in areas like social rights but it has been since the beginning a beacon of inspiration of bright new minds to reach out a way to make a reality many of the futuristic gadgets to make them a nowadays common tools.

Star Trek designing the future... today!

[Krell75 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non so voi, ma io sono cresciuto guardando Star Trek in TV e credo di non aver perso una puntata né della "Serie Classica", quella con Kirk, Spock e il dottor McCoy, né di "The Next Generation", con Picard e Data.

Insomma, sono un fan di vecchia data e trovo che le favolose tecnologie inventate e presentate nella serie siano leggendarie, tanto da aver spesso anticipato i tempi.

Il saggio di Krauss, "La fisica di Star Trek", è un resoconto molto dettagliato di quelle tecnologie, analizzate con l'occhio attento e competente di un vero fisico. Argomenti come la velocità a curvatura, il teletrasporto, la sala ologrammi, i tunnel spaziali, i buchi neri, le stelle e la vita extraterrestre sono al centro del libro.

Il risultato è duplice: da un lato, il libro è interessantissimo perché spiega su basi scientifiche cosa è plausibile e cosa no; dall'altro, Krauss si dilunga un po' troppo nella spiegazione di alcuni concetti di fisica, rendendo la lettura un po' pesante.

---------------------------

I don't know about you, but I grew up watching Star Trek on TV, and I don't think I've missed a single episode of either "The Original Series," with Kirk, Spock, and Dr. McCoy, or "The Next Generation," with Picard and Data.

In short, I'm a longtime fan and I find the fabulous technologies invented and presented in the series to be legendary, so much so that they were often ahead of their time.

Krauss's essay, "The Physics of Star Trek," is a very detailed account of those technologies, analyzed with the careful and expert eye of a true physicist. Topics such as warp drive, transporters, holodecks, wormholes, black holes, stars, and extraterrestrial life are at the heart of the book.

The result is twofold: on the one hand, the book is incredibly interesting because it explains, on a scientific basis, what is plausible and what is not; on the other hand, Krauss goes a bit too far in explaining some physics concepts, making the reading a bit heavy.

[Paul Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

A serious romp through the cosmology of Star Trek?

THE PHYSICS OF STAR TREK is a light-hearted, informative, thoroughly entertaining and yet, paradoxically, entirely serious overview of the physics of Star Trek - arguably the longest-running, most popular, and most famous franchise in the history of television and movies. Dr Krauss regales us with essay after essay on what the writers got right, what they got wrong and how their imaginative brilliance sometimes made them look like prescient scientists instead of script writers - black holes, parallel universes, time travel, quantum gravity, phasers, holographic virtual reality, warp drives, teleportation, replication, alien life forms, scanners, tractor beams, antimatter fuel and much, much more.

Similar in content and style to Michio Kaku's popular PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE, Krauss' approach to the academic side of the physics involved is just a little more light-hearted and easy going which, of course, will appeal to the less-informed readers of popular science. If you feel up to the challenge, this makes a great prequel and companion read to Michio Kaku's excellent book.

For diehard Star Trek fans, Krauss also regales us with a set of laughable physics bloopers and ends with the hint of a sequel to come that he will entitle PHYSICS OF STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KRAUSS! Now that's hilarious.

Well done, Mr Krauss. Highly recommended. On a side note, I recently had the privilege of hearing Mr Krauss speak live in a physics "debate" at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario. If you ever get the chance to hear, be sure to take the opportunity. His speaking is every bit as entertaining as his writing. (Or is it the other way around?)

Paul Weiss

[David Rubenstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a short, enjoyable read for anybody who loves the Star Trek series, as I do. The book describes how most of the concepts and technologies in Star Trek are possible but quite implausible. My favorite chapter was actually the last one, describing the things that are absolutely impossible, that one might call "bloopers".

Krauss really does get to the heart of each issue related to Star Trek concepts and technologies. But, do not read this book with the intention of learning about physics. You won't learn much, because of the lop-sided approach taken in this book. There is no systematic coverage of topics in physics, leading up to the point where a reader might understand the issues. Instead, the reader is simply plumped down beside the relevant issue, which is then explained at a layman's level. It's sort of like skipping the high school and undergraduate-level physics courses, and trying to learn graduate-level concepts in a junior-high school level class.

[H (trying to keep up with GR friends) Balikov · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a "fun" book with a sound scientific foundation. The fun is in experiencing the hard work Kraus has done to provide a foundation for the imaginative devices and phenomena that any Trekie knows intimately.

If you are looking for something like Astrophysics for Trekies you may be disappointed that you won't be able to pass astrophysics 101 after reading this book. If you are looking for the basic plans for building a transporter, you too will find this book lacking.

On the other hand, if you have been wondering how close the writers of Star Trek came to describing a working transporter or was there science behind how the Enterprise tracked the Crystalline Entity after it destroyed a Federation outpost, you will enjoy much of the book. I appreciate Krauss' labor of love and 3.5 stars is what I would give it.

[Tresuiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a physicist and a Star Trek fan I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I never took the fantasy parts of the television show so seriously so I never dwelt on the inconsistencies and glairing errors. The TV shows are a good get away when you want them. That said it doesn’t surprise me in the least that others have taken the series with a bit less forgiveness. Beyond being a Star Trek critic I think this book is an excellent educational resource for the layman about the basic physics involved about the requirements and constraints for real interstellar travel. And, incidentally, a little about the basics of the Stargate series too. It is too bad the author hasn’t updated his book (written in 1995). I found it particularly amusing when he was talking about the CERN particle accelerators, and mentions the new one to be built in Europe (Large Hadron Collider). It is too bad the new particle accelerator has been delayed, but in a weird way, has made for an eerie coincidence in its being ramped up now and my reading this book.

[paper0r0ss0 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un buon esempio di cazzeggio intellettuale intelligente, che a partire da uno spunto di fantasia (almeno fino ad oggi), ragiona in lungo e in largo, nello spazio e nel tempo, anzi nello spazio-tempo dei meandri della fisica.

[Catalin Negru · Rating 5 out of 5]

Target audience: Mainly, people passionate about the Star Trek universe, and secondarily people passionate about sci-fi and science.

About the author: According to Wikipedia, Lawrence Krauss is an American-Canadian theoretical physicist and cosmologist who is a professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University and a former professor at Yale University and Case Western Reserve University. He founded ASU’s Origins Project to investigate fundamental questions about the universe and served as its director until July 2018. He is an advocate of the public understanding of science, of public policy based on sound empirical data, of scientific skepticism and of science education. Krauss, who is an atheist, works to reduce the influence of what he regards as superstition and religious dogma in popular culture.


Structure of the book: The book has around 208 pages, which are divided into 10 chapters. About 5 hours of reading.

Overview: I like Lawrence Krauss as a scientist and, recently, as an author as well. This book is not my first contact with him. I watched him many times on YouTube and he was mentioned with various occasions on different books I read about science. If you are familiar with Lawrence Krauss, imagine putting him at one place with Stephen Hawking (even though he wrote only the Introduction), and you know you have in front of you a good piece of work.
In essence, this book is about making peace between science and fantasy. At a high level, Krauss answers many scientific questions regarding strictly the Star Trek universe. I’m sure that many people from the old generations watched the Start Trek series and asked themselves questions about what were they watching: Is teleportation possible? When can we use laser beams as weapons? What is actually Warp technology? Can we time-travel through a wormhole? And so on…
At a deeper level, however, Krauss answers questions that transcend the Star Trek universe, are part of many/all sci-fi stories, and ultimately are a reflection of our dreams as a group. Even better, the author also teaches us about science, its standing at the moment and how it might be the future, a future that might resemble the one portrayed by the Start Trek universe. Some of the ideas and facts related here might be very familiar if you watched/read Neil deGrasse Tyson’s work (for example).
Is this book obsolete? Maybe. I was a Star Trek fan in the 1990s, but we are now in 2019. I must say that the book brought back many memories, and I often stopped reading and searched on YouTube for various Stat Trek scenes in order to enjoy them once again or simply to refresh my memory. Unfortunately, the book makes references regarding scenes and ideas from the entire Star Trek universe, not just one series; of course there were mentions I did not know. That being said, someone who wants to learn more about science but it has not any idea about Star Trek must expect to encounter passages he cannot or little understand. But that does not make the book less informative from a scientific point of view.
And last but not least, we, reads and fans, have to keep in mind that Star Trek was sci-fi. Krauss dismantles some (quite serious) aspects from this universe, which for some might break the aura of magic surrounding it. Nevertheless, you cannot but admire the genius and imagination behind the creators of Star Trek and how they influenced generations of people and made them dreaming. What is even more interesting is that the influence of sci-fi is not reduced only to dressing like Picard at conventions or naming your dog “La Forge”, but it also influences science itself. When we dream at something, we want to make that something real; we work to materialize our dreams. Moreover, many names in science (entities or mechanisms) are given by seeking inspiration in the sci-fi universe.


Quote: The date here is very interesting, because, as far as I can determine, the first Star Trek episode to refer to a black hole, which it called a "black star," was aired in 1967 before Wheeler ever used the term in public.

Strong points: The book is quite entertaining, it is written in common language, while scientific terms are reduced to minimum. Moreover, you can only admire the finesse with which the author interweaved facts with fiction.

Weak points: In order to fully understand the book, you have to be familiar with the Star Trek universe, which reduced the target audience by quite a lot. Moreover, the Star Trek universe is not what it was used to be, even with the new productions. Even Star Trek fans like me have difficulties understanding/remembering some aspects from this universe now, in 2019.

[Kris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lacking in whimsy and excitement. Half-hazzard. Under-developed.

I picked this up randomly in the library, because it looked short and interesting... but eh. It was only slightly worth the effort. His language is too much a mixture of trifling observational comments about Star Trek in general, along with elevated science vocabulary that is not very well explained.

Most of the topics he explores barely have anything to do with Star Trek. Chapter eight, for instance, about the Big Bang and evolution and aliens, hardly had any Star Trek references. And as for the specific Star Trek gadgets he does decide to talk about, he's lacking in his selection. What about the replicators, or gravity machines, or communicators, or the computer? He may mention most Star Trek technologies, but he doesn't really launch into explaining even half of them.

Instead Krauss seems to get distracted by his favorite physics and cosmology techno-babble, which is not very well written. He tries to translate it for the common layman, but I don't think he does a good job. When he starts listing numbers and new atomic particles I started to tune out. At least his writing style is somewhat loose, and conversational, and evening inviting sometimes. But I would have much rather preferred a deeper, more focused investigation into specific Star Trek technology.

It's also a little out of date. This was written around 1999, and he only focuses on the original series, Voyager, and Next Generation, with maybe two references to Deep Space Nine, and nothing about Enterprise or the new relaunch.

[Reynard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Questo libro è stato scritto da un fisico per gli appassionati di fisica, meglio se trekker ma non è strettamente necessario. I trekker "normali" (io fra questi), ovvero gli appassionati di Star Trek che non badano troppo all'aspetto strettamente scientifico, troveranno la lettura gradevole ma non memorabile, con molte pagine piuttosto astruse. A tutti gli altri sconsiglio la lettura. Il mio voto: 2,5 stelle.

[Gabrielam13 · Rating 5 out of 5]

”The Expanse” m-a făcut să conștientizez nenumăratele primejdii care există cu adevărat în călătoriile spațiale, iar după citirea acesteia, am văzut Star Trek cu alți ochi: ca un serial idealizat care se concentrează mai mult pe aspectele morale și filosofice ale călătoriilor spațiale și mai puțin pe partea de acuratețe științifică. De aceea sunt foarte rare cazurile când echipajul întâmpină dificultăți când naveta accelerează sau se oprește, în ciuda imensei presiuni de nenumărate G-uri la care Enterprise trebuie să fi fost supusă, de aceea nu prea apar întârzieri în timpul comunicării dintre căpitani și admiralii de pe Pământ etc.

Majoritatea prejudecăților mi-au fost, însă înlăturate de către Lawrence M.Krauss, și m-au făcut să realizez că multe dintre ”technobabble”, așa cum le numește autorul, nu sunt fără fundament. Dimpotrivă: autorii Star Trek chiar s-au gândit la multe dintre aspectele tehnice ale călătoriilor spațiale, ale transporter-ului, ale holodeck-ului etc., dar au inventat concepte noi care să contracareze neajunsurile, ceea ce este demn de orice operă de SF. Mi-a plăcut faptul că Lawrence M. Krauss a argumentat care dintre aceste idei sunt plauzibile și care mai puțin, subliniind chiar și câteva concepte noi care au primit nume foarte inspirate din punct de vedere științific.

Pentru mine ”The physics of Star Trek” a fost punctul de intersecție a două pasiuni: Star Trek și știința, ceea ce m-a făcut să sorb întreaga carte cu multă aviditate. Însă o pot recomanda oricui a vizionat cel puțin una din serialele Star Trek, deoarece este destul de ușor de citit, iar conceptele fizice prezentate sunt explicate pe înțelesul tuturor.

[Manny]

There's an interesting discussion of the physics of transporter beams in section 23.9 of Penrose's The Road to Reality . Among other things, Penrose points out that teleportation is, in principle, achievable by sufficiently ingenious use of quantum entanglement. It requires, however, that the original is destroyed, since an ability to create perfect copies would violate Heisenberg Uncertainty: by creating enough copies, you could pin down the quantum state as accurately as you wanted, an impossibility.

Is any of this discussed in Krauss's book? I'm curious.

[Petra · Rating 5 out of 5]

K tejto knihe ma priviedlo to, že aktuálne pozerám niektoré Star Trek seriály, no fyzika a astronómia ma nikdy nebavili - tak som sa chcela dozvedieť viac. Kniha je zaujímavá aj vtipná, na konkrétnych príkladoch z univerza Star Treku autor vysvetľuje technológie, ktoré producenti ST v seriáloch použili a autor sa zaoberá tým, či sú možné alebo nie. So základmi stredoškolskej fyziky sa to číta dobre a ešte sa človek kopu vecí dozvie.

[Antonio Fanelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bello davvero.
Nonostante gli argomenti non siano dei più semplici, il ritmo è scorrevole, leggero e si riesce a capire quasi tutto :)
L'autore ama Star Trek e la fisica e si vede :))
Una gran bella lettura.

[Seva]

Fun little pop science book the main drawback of which is it does not require you to watch any Star Trek. Superficially mentioning couple of names and episodes it delves mainly in standard stuff of black holes, anthropic principle, alien life, time travel, string theory etc making it just another popular physics book.

[Xochi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cool book if you like physics and star trek. It explains a lot of the scientific phenomena often mentioned in the show, as well as some things the show also gets wrong. Some of it is kind of dense to read, but i think the author does his best to explain it in a way that’s easier to understand.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A simple to read science book written from a 'Star Trek' stance. Educational and entertaining, Krauss has a skilful way of setting out complex concepts.

[Diego · Rating 4 out of 5]

Publicado originalmente en mi blog

Teniendo en cuenta las más de 100 entradas dedicadas en este blog a explicar ciencia usando episodios de Star Trek (y usando otros libros y películas de ciencia ficción), no era difícil aventurar que este libro iba a gustarme. La gran diferencia entre lo que hace Krauss y lo que hago yo (Dios me libre de compararme con un físico de verdad), es que él sí sabe de qué habla. La filosofía detrás del libro, si se me permite el atrevimiento, es la misma que busco con mis post: usar como excusa los hechos extraordinarios de la ciencia ficción para explicar lo que es posible, lo que no, y lo que puede ser en la realidad, con el conocimiento actual de la ciencia.

Siendo honestos, no es un libro de Star Trek que hable de ciencia, es más bien un libro de ciencia que habla de Star Trek. Krauss utiliza conceptos científicos aparecidos en algunos episodios concretos, así como la base científica de algunos artefactos recurrentes en la serie (el transportador, la sala Holográfica, el motor warp, etc ….) como punto de partida para hablar de cosmología, de física cuántica o de física relativista. Tampoco es un libro que se dedique a mostrar los fallos de la serie. De hecho solo dedica un capítulo final a eso, y el propósito principal no es el de la crítica a los guionistas, ni mucho menos. Esos ‘errores’ científicos en los guiones pueden dar una idea equivocada al espectador del estado de la ciencia actual, o de la ciencia posible, y como tal ese capítulo debe entenderse con un fin meramente didáctico, como lo es el resto del libro.

En lo personal, he dedicado muchas palabras en este blog a pensar en las ideas científicas en la ciencia ficción, pero como es evidente, nunca me atrevo demasiado con temas que tengan que ver con la Teoría de la Relatividad, con la mecánica cuántica o con objetos exóticos que puedan existir en el universo, como agujeros negros y demás. Al menos, nunca me atrevo a indagar más allá de lo que es un conocimiento básico sobre el tema (por ejemplo, que el tiempo depende del observador, que no se puede conocer con precisión el momento y la posición de una partícula al mismo tiempo, o que un agujero negro tiene tanta gravedad que la luz no puede escapar). Como siempre, es tan importante saber lo que se sabe como lo que no se sabe. Por eso, personalmente lo que me llevo de este libro son nuevas herramientas para atreverme un poco más con estos temas. Quizás puedo incluirlos más a menudo en mis posts, aunque reconozco que a pesar de haber leído sobre ciertos temas decenas de veces, sigo sin entenderlos por completo. Quizás eso sea lo normal, después de todo. Como decía Richard Feynman: “Si cree que entiende la mecánica cuántica, es que no entiende la mecánica cuántica“.

Krauss no debe plantearse esos dilemas, porque obviamente él sí entiende de mecánica cuántica y de muchas otras cuestiones que a los profanos se nos hacen complicadas. Por tanto leer sobre la ciencia de Star Trek de la mano de un físico y divulgador ha sido un placer, que se me ha hecho incluso breve. Recurriré a él para inspirarme en mis entradas más de una y dos veces.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book can be very interesting for someone who loves Star Trek as well as Physics. On several occasions episode titles are referenced to, and it could be interesting to pay attention to the matter dealt for that episode while also viewing it. These can also be directly navigated from within the index at the end of the book; I would certainly be doing the same.

Section One deals with Inertial Dampers, Tractor Beams, Time Travel, Warp Speeds, Deflector Shields, Wormholes, and other Space-time Stuff. How they are used, its physics and possibilities. If anyone has read a certain couple of books by Michio Kaku (or any Popular Science books on Physics), these ideas would be nothing new. This was precisely the reason why it failed to fascinate me because personally I have already read much about these. For a newbie, it can strike to be extremely appealing, no doubt!

Section Two deals with Transporter Beams, Warp Drives, Dilithium Crystals, Matter-Antimatter Engines, and the Holodeck. This was more interesting to read than the earlier, having comprised of subjects and ideas that fascinate me much.
With transporter beams, the writer talks about the possibilities of transporting matter as information or as atoms themselves, and how could it be ever done if possible. The details of how "dematerializing" would work have been very nicely explained, along-with how much energy is required to perform the teleportation, how that can be attained, and its feasibility in real life. It also talks about the thought of how a presence of a soul has studiously been avoided in Star Trek, but that at the same time the notion of a "life force" has been embedded in its themes in various episodes.
Its following chapter deals with Matter-Antimatter related problems, why matter should or is relatively lesser than antimatter in the universe, and how it can be produced and used for Warp Drives in real life perhaps in the twenty-third century for Space Travel.

Section Three involved a complete chapter dealing with the possibility of various kinds of life in the universe. Its following chapter dealt with a selection of ten exotic physics possibilities including the Dark Matter, Neutron Stars, Cosmic Strings, Anyons, Other Dimensions, Quantum Measurements, Solitons, Quasars, and Neutrinos. The final chapter was based upon selection of ten errors in Star Trek.

Upon reading, I felt more of a need to view more of the Trek Episodes, while also reading through a couple of their novels. Personally, I have never viewed a single episode from Deep Space Nine, Voyager and the Enterprise series and would like to do so soon. But their references were truly interesting anyway. Mr. Krauss has explained most of the ideas with good detailing and being as concise as possible for a layman's understanding of the various concepts.
A 4-star rating from me, having read much of the topics in other Popular Science books before, the only fascination for me being in context with Star Trek, and a few of its relevant notions.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my favourite popular science books of all time. Unless of course time travel one day becomes possible and I travel back in time and discover a popular science book I like better before I read this one.

Of course, The Physics of Star Trek is not really about Star Trek at all, and I was puzzled to see comments from reviewers who thought it was aimed at sci fi fans, or about what physicists like to watch on TV. Krauss is simply using the much loved (and often lovingly derided) series as a way of taking a fresh look at physics, at what might be possible: a starting point for an engaging and entertaining tour of some aspects of physics and cosmology.

Everybody - sci fan or otherwise - knows what a transporter beam does. And nobody can have failed to notice the pace of technological progress - we live in a world where you can send a text message to your phone and have it reply with its spacial coordinates within minutes, using two separate satellite systems. Next year's model will do even more, faster and in 3D. So it's just a matter of time until we get transporter beams, many people think. Talking robots. Warp drive. We'll go to the stars one day.

Some are even affronted at the very idea that there may be limits to technological progress - "Good Technical detail, narrowminded author" wrote one Amazon UK reviewer, adding "All through the book he tells of the impossible energy requirements to accomplish many things, such as warpspeed, but they're only impossible according to current knowledge. Go back to BC times and ask their scientists about flying machines: impossible." Many argue, like creationists, that since science has sometimes been wrong and all knowledge is essentially provisional, how dare some jumped-up eminent professor of physics suggest that we cannot make up any imaginary technology we like the sound of and boldly go anywhere we damn well want in the future, in anti-gravity boots if we feel like it. Anything is possible, given time and steady progress. Dream it and wait.

But some of these things are more feasible than others, and there has to be a limit. Science is not magic, it is about discovering how our universe works, and it is constrained by what actually is. What would it actually take to make, say, a transporter beam (and what would it really do?) An interstellar spacecraft? What makes it impossible today and what breakthrough would make it possible in principle? As someone who grew up loving science fiction and fully expecting to be wearing a silver suit and going to work in a hovercar by 2000, I find this fascinating and a great way of approaching physics. We know what the technology of the future should be like, because we grew up with it - so where is it?

Krauss attempts to answer some of these questions.

[Jim Shaner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lawrence Krauss has an easy-to-read conversational style of writing. At times I couldn’t put the book down, despite its seriously scientific subject matter. The book is a discussion of the forces that make up our universe, from the entertaining perspective of Star Trek. While neither compendium nor companion to the TV series or movies, this volume uses on-screen examples to discuss experiments in and theories of quantum physics.

I like the way the author focuses on the quantifiable, calculating how many atoms must be present in the human body, and how much energy would be required for the transporter to “shoot” matter a certain distance down to a planet. In this way, the author questions the plausibility of space travel and adventure as depicted in the stories of Star Trek. Will our species ever be able to explore the galaxy in a starship, encounter other intelligent life, and unite to form a federation of planets? Our understanding of physics can limit those possibilities.

Although quantum theories are complex topics, and much of it doesn’t yet make sense to me, the author drew me along, reasonably explaining the various topics. I may have come away with a slightly less vague understanding of our universe; and certainly a deeper appreciation for its vastness and variety.

While I enjoyed the references to particular Star Trek episodes or movies, I often found my memory strained by the name of the episode and its context in this book. Although I understand the purpose of the book is not to regurgitate each plotline, I could have used an additional descriptive sentence to deepen my understanding of the author’s illustrative points.

I was not enthused by the section that speculates whether intelligent life really exists elsewhere in the universe, or how many years old is the universe, or why its expansion seemingly increases. An acknowledgement of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle here might limit speculation about such subjects until we have more accurate measurements. Meanwhile, as our brightest minds ponder galactic mysteries, we cannot seem to figure out how to provide food to the people of Haiti.

Immediately after this section, however, Krauss goes into a fascinating discussion about how our solar system may have developed from the remnants of a supernova – creating the elements which make up our bodies and our environment on Earth.

I would have liked the author to discuss Artificial Intelligence as it relates to the holodeck, or to Commander Data. However, I appreciate that Krauss draws primarily from his own expert knowledge of physics and cosmology. Admittedly, our understanding of all these concepts is subject to constant evolution of thought.

Overall, I found this book a good way to explore the universe without actually embarking on a starship.

[Ioannis Savvas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Μια καλή ανασκόπηση της Φυσικής με αφορμή τα λάθη στην τηλεοπτική σειρά Star Trek.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

One could almost believe this book is contemporary, with the recent Star Trek reboot movie bringing Trek back into popular culture, but alas, this book is from 1995. (It would have been really interesting to see what Krauss would have done with all that black hole sloppiness in J.J. Abram's movie.) But I finally got around to reading this, partially thanks to the TBR pile and Science reading challenges. It's not good to let books sit ignored for so long!

Reading this book, as with most popular science books, was an interesting experience. At one time, not so far distant, I had a really good grasp on most of the concepts explored in this book. But really, it's been years since I've thought of most of it in any sort of sustained way. So on one level, it was a light and interesting romp through some of the most profound concepts of physics, using the storytelling of the Trek universe to illustrate the implications. But on another level, I kept getting stuck, demanding my brain return to an earlier condition in which all of this was as native and easy to understand as my frivolous Facebook game strategies are now. But that state is hard to achieve when you're only getting to read the book in two-minute snatches, having to reread as much to remember where you were as you read new in any given sitting.

Sigh.

This book is dated and yet not. Engaging and easy one moment and mind-twisting the next. It would be very interesting to see an updated edition -- to bring into account the new movie as well as the detectors that Krauss mentions being built as he is writing that now have recently started producing interesting results. Amazon suggests there is a Kindle version revised in 2007, but the movie came out in 2009. I say another edition is due!

Interesting, but I will probably be releasing into the wilds of paperbackswap, as I have plenty of other reference physics texts.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baru kali ini saya benar-benar jatuh cinta sama fisika :) Krauss sukses membuat saya geleng-geleng kepala! Boleh jadi, inilah "kitab suci" paling lengkap buat penggemar Star Trek di seantero jagat raya, mulai dari generasi pertama Spock, Enterprise (Picard) hingga Deep Space Nine.

Krauss, Doktor Fisika MIT, belum apa-apa sudah mengawali buku ini dengan kata pengantar "super-kocak" yang ditulis oleh satu dari tiga fisikawan terbesar abad ini: Stephen Hawking, yang ternyata juga penggemar berat Star Trek.

Selanjutnya, silahkan anda terpana dengan segenap teori fantastis seputar peredam kejut, mesin waktu, black-hole, worm-hole, dunia multi-dimensi, teleportasi, warp, mesin materi-anti materi, dll.

Fisika Star Trek adalah membenturkan hukum-hukum fisika ke dalam kekonyolan fiksi-ilmiah ala sineas pembuat naskah serial ini. Dalam bentuknya yang lain, Krauss -meminjam istilah Einstein- menantang sci-fi untuk tampil di dunia kasat mata. Serta mengubah mimpi jadi nyata.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a good overview look at each of the major physics-oriented aspects of the Star Trek universe. Just how likely is it that we will develop transporters, food replicators, or (probably of greatest interest to most of us) holo suites? The answers are here in this well written layman's guide. This book is best suited for the curious, for those who wonder if these things will one day be possible. The authors take us down each path, sometimes determining that it will be possible, someday, and at other times, letting us down easy. I thank the authors for satisfying my curiosity as well as teaching me some theoretical aspects of physics at the same time.

[Nonethousand Oberrhein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sciency Fiction
Retracing the hundreds of episodes of the TV series, the authors explain the science behind the big and small gizmos (from the warp engine to the tricoder) known to any Star Trek fan. More than a scientific legitimation of the show, this book finds the good excuse to talk and vulgarize hard science in a very accessible and enjoyable way. “Trekker” (or “Trekkie”) knowledge may be useful to get the hidden episode reference, but it is not a strict requirement: any Science enthusiast may find his happiness in reading how fiction may be built on solid scientific basis.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

About sixteen years old, some of the commentary here features the present absence of later advances on exoplanets, etc. However, it is still an enjoyable romp through science-related plot points of Star Trek movies and series including Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Much of the focus is on relativistic realities around distance and time (the universe is bigger than even this cinematic universe suggests) as well as electromagnetic properties such as no one would really be able to see a phase blast if it is an energy beam and not a particle beam, etc.

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had previously read Krauss's sequel to this book and truly enjoyed it. Unfortunately, the original is not as good. While the early part of the book--where the author discussed warp drive and transporters--is very engaging, the second half or so is markedly worse. The back-end of the book treats a variety of different issues in summary fashion and this is just not as interesting--as soon as you get into a topic, the discussion moves on to something else.

[Clay Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed getting this book for Christmas. I learned a lot about physics and what is possible in the Star Trek universe.

[Devero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un buon modo di insegnare la fisica, o per lo meno, di far comprendere le nozioni di base senza fatica. Sempre che vi piaccia Star Trek, ovviamente.
Ovviamente, a me piace parecchio.